Why Pokemon GO servers keep going down & what you can do

Pokemon GO is addictive, there’s no doubt about that. The only thing that hinders the experience of the game, is the many bugs & crashes that appear to creep up on us more often than they probably should.

Although the slight issues in the game don’t stop us from playing (we’re addicted, NOTHING can stop us), they are pretty annoying.

Due to the recent release of Pokemon GO in Japan, the servers have been up and down for a few days now, stopping some people from being able to access the game. You’ll usually know if the servers are down as when you launch the app, you’ll be alerted by an error message asking you to retry. This could either take a few attempts to finally load up the game, or you’ll be stuck on the Gyarados screen for a while with no luck.

Usually, if a smartphone app crashes we’re too impatient to wait for it to recover, and often will delete it and re-download. However, this won’t work for Pokemon GO. With it being a worldwide server issue, you will actually cause even more issues by deleting the app in the first place. All this will do is prompt you to log back into your account again once it’s re-installed, but that of course won’t work with the servers being down. You’ll find yourself entering your login information over and over again, and not being able to check if the servers are actually back online.

The best thing to do in this case, is just be patient, and wait…

Why do the servers keep going down?

A number of factors including too many players logging in all at the same time, the Pokemon servers having a general refresh or the threat of hackers trying to take down the servers of one of the biggest games in the world right now, can cause Pokemon GO to crash and upset millions of people all at once.

How to know if there’s a server issue

It’s possible that you could encounter a server issue whilst playing the game too, which won’t usually show an error message. The easiest way to know if your game is freezing or lagging due to a server issue, is to keep an eye on the Pokeball icon on the left hand side. If the game has froze and that’s still spinning, then there’s a good chance that the Pokemon servers are refreshing, and it should be back up and running in no time.

If this isn’t the case, and you encounter a glitch where the graphics haven’t froze, but you don’t seem to be able to do anything within the app, then it looks like it simply needs to be closed and opened back up again. You might lose some of your recent data, but should be able to play again. Don’t forget to report any bugs or glitches to the Pokemon GO team. We’re sure that the tech team behind the game are aware of most of the issues and will be working on fixing them, but it’s good to help them along the way wherever we can!

Is Pokemon GO about to crash?

If you’re about to head out on a Pokemon hunt, but are unsure just how long the game will last until the servers go down again, then it’s worthwhile getting a bit of inside knowledge.

It would be pretty difficult for us to predict if the Pokemon GO servers are about to crash and die off the top of our heads, but ispokemongodownornot.com have took all the work out of it for us. The website tracks the loading time it takes when logging in, using an automated system that signs in to a Pokemon Trainer Club account every 30 seconds. If this is showing to take more than 15 seconds, then it’s dangerous territory and the servers could be about to be overloaded.

The website is a pretty handy tool to use if you just don’t have time to sit around waiting for servers to reboot, and can actually save you a lot of stress in the long-run.

Our advice to all players experiencing crashes, bugs or fixes is to stay patient and wait it out. The game will be back online soon enough, and it will be worth the wait.

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